Leafy Learning

Now that fall is officially here, our thematic unit of study for the next couple of weeks is ... you guessed it ... FALL! Along those lines, this week's science lessons centered around leaves, culminating in today's experiment.

But first, a lesson in the parts of a leaf. We looked at real maple leaves, courtesy of a tree on our playground. We were able to label a leaf worksheet and then locate those parts on our real leaves.

Then we learned about the reason leaves are green -- chlorophyll -- and why they change colors in the fall. I think I amazed the kids when I gave them a laminated card with a colored leaf pictured on it. 

I told the students that we were going to remove the "chlorophyll" from our leaf cards and see if they changed colors.

They were amazed! I have to admit, it was gratifying to see them impressed by something so simple. The secret? Print in color, laminate, then color over the yellow, brown, or orange leaves with green dry-erase marker! After I 'fessed up, I let the students try it for themselves.

Our leafy afternoon ended with a real science experiment -- we are trying to extract the chlorophyll from our maple leaves. The students tore their leaves into small pieces, which they then placed inside a small cup. We covered the torn leaves with rubbing alcohol and placed them in a windowsill. 

After 20 minutes, we placed a strip of coffee filter inside. If all goes as expected, tomorrow morning, some green will appear on our filter strips! Stay tuned for the results ...

Sharing our summers

One of our first "homework" assignments was to complete a page about our summer vacations -- complete with a picture. We loved sharing our vacations and hearing about our friends' summers. 

  

 

Sharing Time funnies

Couldn't resist sharing a couple of funnies from today's Sharing Time ...

• The topic was our favorite animals, and one of our boys shared that his favorite animal is a black panther. (Well, first he called it a "black lion tiger" until he was corrected by a classmate, lol). Upon hearing that his fave was in fact a black panther, Mrs. Viall chimed in with "I have a 20-pound black cat, and we call him our black panther." The student leaned over and very politely whispered, "Yes, but it's not your turn to share now, is it?" 😛
• One of our girls listed dolphins, giraffes, and dogs as her favorites. When I asked her if she had a pet dog at home, she answered matter-of-factly, "No. We can't have one because my 'mom' says she'll get 'stuck' with all the 'responsibility.'" And YES she did her fingers in the air for the air quotes! Mrs. Viall could. not. stop. laughing. 😂

Indoor recess = imagination!

When it's rainy, like it has been for much of this week, we have to improvise for recess. Not only do we play active indoor games like "Duck, Duck, Goose" and "Fire in the Jungle," but we get out toys like barbies and legos. It was interesting to see that the boys enjoyed the barbies as much as the girls. Here are some pics ...

 This last photo requires a little explanation, but boy is it cool. While the children were playing indoors, I took the opportunity to punch out some letters to hang on our daily schedule. (Check the back of Mrs. Viall's door to see the result ...). I left the scraps sitting on a table, and before I realized it, this creative young man had arranged them into the shape of a monkey face! He later added the monkey's body, and a spotted snake for good measure. I LOVE the creativity at work here! ❤

Nature scavenger hunt

Now more than ever, children lack exposure to nature of all sorts. For this reason (plus, I just love the outdoors!), I believe in getting kids outside as much as possible! Last week we ventured outside for a nature scavenger hunt. I gave the students four particular letters, and they had to locate items on our playground that began with the letters in question, and then draw a picture. (They were also allowed a "freebie" as long as they could identify its beginning letter or sound.)

What fun we had making all sorts of discoveries outside on our playground!